Partner Article

Making the best of gadgets and gizmos

With Simon Raybould of Curved Vision

I’m doing a bit of (free) work for churches and charities at the moment: it wasn’t planned - it just happened that way - but it’s proving to be a real eye-opener when we look at why people can’t be heard in various places. There’s a common misunderstanding in many places, it seems, about what microphones and PA systems can do for you. With portable PA systems and lapel mics becoming every more popular (because they’re cheaper all the time) I thought it might be worthwhile going over the two most common problems we’ve found recently with microphone-based system - be that in church, the local charity fund-raiser or your business…

Garbage in, garbage out. PA systems can’t make your voice clearer (in fact they tend to make your clarity slightly worse). If you put unclear words into a microphone all you’ll get out of the speakers at the far end is louder unclear words! This applies to stumbled words, slurred words, speaking in a boring monotone, accents and other habits. You’d be amazed at what people assume a microphone can change!

Many systems are reinforcement systems, not augmentation systems. This means that the system is designed to work alongside your voice and not replace it. It tends to be what’s found in many smaller halls and so on around the country. Many years ago, when the technology was new, systems were put in place to add a bit of “weight” to the voice of the presenter. Over the years this fact has been lost as we become more and more used to seeing people using microphone systems to talk (or sing) to audiences of tens of thousands - so here at Curved Vision we often find people expecting the system to do all the work. If the system’s not designed to do that, it won’t do that! One quick way of checking is to look at where the speakers are - if the nearest set of speakers is half way back down your auditorium you can be sure that the people who put them in place were assuming you could make yourself heard at least as far as the position of the speakers!

These aren’t difficult problems to get around for your presentation - the tricky bit lies in remembering to “speak clearly and speak up” and so give your microphone the best chance of making things work for you.

Next time I’ll mention a few of the positive things to do with your microphone, rather than just things to avoid!

As always - comments and questions can be passed on to me at sme@curved-vision.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .